The present invention relates to a furnace, stove or the like sauna heating-apparatus.
As is well known in the art, sauna heaters commonly employ a combustion chamber in which heat-interchange takes place between rocks piled on top of the burner and gases directed upwardly toward the top of such burners. An air intake or channel communicates the atmosphere with the burner, typically a gas burner, so as to supply air thereto. Products of combustion rise in the combustion chamber upwardly and, upon heat exchange with the rock-carrying top, are directed to a flue. Upon heating the rocks to a desired temperature, water is poured onto the rocks to thereby provide steam, the steam intensity corresponding to the degree of heating of the rocks.
A problem quite frequently encountered with such sauna heaters resides in the manner in which excess water not absorbed by the heated rocks, is drained or discharged from the heating devise. Although in many prior art devices drain pipes are provided to dispose of excess water, it has been found that in many instances such drain systems are inadequate in that residue water accumulated in deep corners of the heating device cannot be removed by the systems available. Inherently, deep corners are the most vulnerable places in which thermal cracks may occur.
Another serious and common problem encountered is the cracking of the sauna heater top when the latter has been heated to a high temperature and water is poured thereon. In the absence of adequate water drainage systems, such cracking causes thermal shock to the metal involved which, eventually, fractures such metal tops of the heater. Moreover, once such a top is cracked and fractured, the possibility is great that poisonous combustion gases may enter the sauna room.